jlh

on busy times on the internets

Sep 14, 2011 10:00

It's that time of year in which people are very busy, so I just wanted to say in one place at one time my general social policy.

In short: I will not call you, I will not text you, I will not try to see you, I will not ping you on chat, I will not @tweet you, I will not expect you to reply to any comments I might make in your journal, and I will not expect you to contact me in any way. I never want to be seen as any kind of social burden, or as someone who obligates other people socially. If you feel that I have done that, please let me know, and of course I will reduce my contact with you further.

  • I do not initiate emails unless they are brief, urgent questions. I will state the relative urgency of the question and the time frame during which I need an answer. Otherwise, I will not email you.
  • I do not @tweet people as a general rule. I do not DM on twitter, but I will reply to DMs.
  • If you would like to chat with me, please ping. I am never on invisible, and when I'm busy I say so, so if I'm online I'm generally amenable. I will not attempt to chat with you, even if you are online and your status is "available."
  • I trust that people who do not want comments on their journal entries will set them to have no comments. However if you would rather that I not comment on your journal please let me know.
  • As a general rule, I reply to the comments on my journal. However I do understand that journal comments are not obligations for conversation, and do not expect people to reply to my replies.
  • Similarly, I do not expect people to reply to the comments that I make in their journal unless I've asked them a question. However even in that case of course it is up to you whether you wish to reply or not. I do reserve the right to not comment in the journals of people whose consistent nonreplies to comments implies, to me, that they are not interested in people commenting in their journal. I will not think less of you for this; I just probably won't comment in your journal.
  • I'm not really on facebook, but anyone on facebook probably knows this. I try to keep up with the invitations, though.
  • I do not initiate in-person meetups, because I understand that people are very busy and don't really have time for that sort of thing. I hope that when they do, if they would like to see me they will contact me.
  • I do not call people, unless I have a very time sensitive question and I know they're home.
  • I do not text people except to negotiate logistics.
  • I try not to post on LJ/DW more than ten times per week, so as not to spam flists.
  • If there is a similar way in which I can reduce my social burden on others on tumblr, please let me know. I don't see tumblr as creating a social burden, but anything I can do to lessen social burdens on tumblr, I will do.

As for me, well, spending two weeks nearly entirely offline and having no one notice or look for me or try to contact me does tend to put things into perspective; I think I'm just not the sort of person who is missed or needed in that way. I'm pretty sure that if I got busy again, and took more time off, I would be able to do so without anyone being any the wiser. I am, fortunately for me I reckon, neither so in-demand nor so important to anyone that I need to make the kinds of announcements that are so popular this week.

Anyway, please feel free to contact me in whatever manner you choose.

crossposted from Dreamwidth |
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